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Digital Rydberg simulation of dynamical quantum phase transitions in the Schwinger model

Domenico Pomarico1,2,*, Federico Dell’Anna3,4, Riccardo Cioli3,4, Saverio Pascazio1,2, Francesco V. Pepe1,2, Paolo Facchi1,2, and Elisa Ercolessi3,4

  • *Contact author: domenico.pomarico@ba.infn.it
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013177 – Published 18 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/b233-qtvm

Abstract

We present the simulation of the quench dynamics of the Z3 Schwinger model, which describes an approximation of one-dimensional quantum electrodynamics, on a digital noisy Rydberg atom platform, aiming at the observation of multiple dynamical quantum phase transitions. In order to reach long-time dynamics, we exploit an encoding dictated by the symmetries, combined with a circuit compression procedure. We focus on a quench that evolves the Dirac vacuum by means of a Hamiltonian depending on a negative mass parameter. This leads to resonant Rabi oscillations between the Dirac vacuum and mesonic states. The population concentration exhibits oscillations with negligible fluctuations of detuned states also with the inclusion of combined noise sources, from which we can clearly detect multiple dynamical phase transitions.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013177– Published 18 February, 2026
  • Received 28 July 2025
  • Accepted 23 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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